Linksys was acquired by Cisco in 2003 and Cisco kept the brandname because it was better known in the U.S. than Cisco was for the consumer. But Cisco's CEO Chambers says there's little advantage in that when you go globally, therefore they are now killing off the Linksys brandname.
Consumers don't need to worry as nothing will change for them. Cisco will continue to support all the old Linksys-branded products.